Kerala tourism shores up efforts to recover from post-flooding woes

Kerala’s tourism players are working towards business recovery after experiencing what’s believed to be the sector’s poorest performing month to-date in August.

Access to many of the state’s tourism destinations like Munnar, Idukki and Periyar was severely affected after the state was battered by its worst floods in a century.

Thekkady lake in Periyar Tiger Reserve, Kerala, India

In the wake of the floods, the department of tourism of Kerala is participating in 12 international trade shows beginning with Saudi Arabia and Bahrain to aggressively promote the destination in international markets.

Restoring the damaged infrastructure is also an impetus.

“Some roads and bridges were damaged because of the floods. We are working with the public works department towards restoring connectivity to these places,” said Rani George, Kerala’s tourism secretary.

“Kerala is recovering and we see the situation improving as the days go by. South Kerala has already recovered. Places like Munnar, Thekady and Periyar will take some time as these are interior places and the road connectivity needs to be strengthened,” said Karan Anand – head, relationships, Cox & Kings.

Anand further shared that the Kerala Travel Mart 2018, which took place in September, attracted a record number of domestic and international buyers, who travelled to the state to see the situation for themselves.

“Their inputs will encourage travellers to visit Kerala in large numbers, in time for the season that began this month (October),” Karan forecasted.

Moreover, the company has seen “considerable improvement” after constantly engaging with overseas partners on the situation in post-flood Kerala.

Meanwhile, Raja Gopaal Iyer, CEO, UDS Group of Hotels, said: “The market is slowly and surely recovering, but it will take some time to recover completely.”

The hotel sees good demand from German and Russian clients visiting for Ayurveda, staying a minimum of 14 days.

“We are seeing a lot of foreign tour operators who are coming to Kerala for finalisation of properties to work with,” said Iyer.